Newsletter

Tassel Ridge Winery–July 24, 2009

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Friday–Sunday, July 24–26—New Pizzeria & Pasta Too! Debuts

Our new Pizzeria & Pasta Too! will be released this weekend. It is a dry, fruity, red wine that is perfect for…you guessed it, pizza and pasta with a tomato-based sauce. In fact, make the pasta sauce spicy or add pepper flakes to your pizza and wow! This wine really complements the food! Pizzeria & Pasta Too! is best when served at room temperature.

Pizzeria & Pasta Too! is made entirely from Sabrevois grapes grown at Tassel Ridge Winery. Sabrevois is a grape variety that was developed by Elmer Swenson who lived in Osceola, Wisconsin. It was named after a small town in Quebec where the grape variety did very well. In Quebec, it is traditionally blended with Foch and St. Croix but we like the fruity character so much, we bottled this wine as a pure varietal.

Because it is so fruit forward, we think it will appeal to people who don’t like red wine because of the astringency of the tannins or because of other strong flavors.

We will be pairing this wine with a spicy red sauce served on a slice of a freshly baked baguette during our release this weekend.

Price: $13.00 plus tax for a 750 ml bottle

Wine Country Pastas and Pasta Sauces from Tassel Ridge Winery Go Great with Pizzeria & Pasta Too!

Our wine country pastas are bags of grape bunch shaped pasta and are priced at $5.00. We also offer pasta sauces in roasted garlic and basil and roasted red bell pepper flavors. The pasta sauces are priced at $7.50. We also offer pasta kits which include pasta and a sauce mix for $8.00. Consider adding our breadsticks and crostini for $3.00 each, and our bread dipping oils at $16.50 to complete your Italian themed meal. And, don’t forget Pizzeria & Pasta Too! for a great food and wine pairing experience.

Wednesday, July 29—Join us at Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines for Uncorked Encore

Beginning at 5:30 p.m., the Blank Park Zoo is open for Uncorked Encore! Several Iowa wineries will pour tastes of their wine, and the Zoo will sell glasses that visitors can sip while they enjoy musical entertainment. Join us for a fun evening with the animals. (Must be over 21).

Friday, July 31—Tassel Ridge Winery Will Sell Wine-a-Ritas at Friday After Five in Oskaloosa

Come to the Square in Oskaloosa to wind down on Friday evening, July 31 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Tassel Ridge Winery will be there making and selling our popular Wine-a-Ritas. And, the popular band, Fatal Addiction, will perform. Food will be provided by Hy-Vee. There is lots of opportunity for meeting and greeting or just enjoy the band from the tree-shaded park. We look forward to seeing you there.

Saturday, August 1—Artist Andi Mitchell Exhibition Features Flowers as Her Subjects

Andi Mitchel has chosen to explore organic forms by using flowers as her subject matter. Her intent is to ‘find’ and pull out shapes she sees in a still life and present them to the viewer in a simple and bold color palette. Andi concentrates on small organic forms in a value range to build a cohesive representation of the subject matter, filling the composition in such a way to portray the flower as a landscape.

Andi Mitchel is a 2008 Central College Graduate with a Bachelor’s in Art and has an Associate degree in Theology from the Christian Life School of Theology. She was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. Andi and her husband, Shawn, moved to Pella, Iowa in 2002 and are raising their three children there. Andi is currently the Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Pella. Among her duties, she directs the Pella Community Art Center and the Joan Kuyper Farver Gallery.

Saturday, August 1—
Come and See Our Brand New Mechanical Grape Harvester

10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

Stop by to see Tassel Ridge Winery’s new mechanical grape harvester. The harvester will allow us to improve the quality of our wine because we will able to pick our grapes at the peak of perfection rather than having to wait while manual pickers get the crop in. This is especially important if wet weather is on the way since rain will cause the sugar percentage in the grapes to drop. The harvester will allow picking of grapes at two acres per hour or about six tons per hour. It works by shaking the grapes from the vine. We’ll have someone present to answer your questions. This is our last public viewing before harvest.

Sunday, August 2—Experience a Taste of the Bayou at Tassel Ridge Winery

Wine Tasting: 6:00 p.m.
Dinner Seating: 6:30 p.m.

Price: $55 per person, plus tax

Join us for a spicy night of Cajun and Creole fare with select Tassel Ridge wines. Dinner will begin with mini muffalettas. The muffaleta sandwich originated in New Orleans in 1906 at Central Grocery, which was operated by Salvatore Lupo, a Sicilian immigrant. The sandwich is popular with city natives and visitors, and has been described as “one of the great sandwiches of the world.” This dinner will also feature shrimp gumbo, sweet and spicy chicken etouffée, and collard greens. For dessert, enjoy banana flambé. Make advance reservations by Wednesday, July 29 by calling the Winery at 641/672-9463.

Your copy of the Summer 2009 Tassel Ridge Winery Events Program can be accessed here!

In the future, we will put our events programs on our web site and will let you know about the fact they have been posted with a note in our e-letter. The Summer 2009 edition can be accessed here: http://www.tasselridge.com/images/Events-Prog-Sum09.pdf.
It is a 4.86 mb PDF.

Join us Friday and Saturday, August 7–8 at the National Balloon Classic in Indianola

Tassel Ridge Winery will participate with the Heart of Iowa Wine Trail in a wine festival that will be part of the National Balloon Classic on Friday and Saturday, August 7 and 8 from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. both days. We will have wine tasting and will offer the opportunity to purchase bottles of wine. The Heart of Iowa Wine Trail is sponsoring musical performances on the Farmers Insurance Stage featuring the music of the Big Daddy Blues Band on Friday and the Tony Valdez Band on Saturday. Advance tickets which includes admission to the wine festival and the Balloon Classic are $15. Tickets are on sale at all Heart of Iowa Wine Trail member wineries (including Tassel Ridge Winery) and on the Heart of Iowa Wine Trail website at www.heartofiowawinetrail.com. Tickets purchased at the event are $15 for the wine festival in addition to the Balloon Classic admission price.

Be Sure to Visit Us in the Wine Tent at the Iowa State Fair August 13—23.

Tassel Ridge Winery, along with several other Iowa wineries, will be pouring tastes of several of its wines in the Iowa Wine Growers Association Wine Tent. You will find us again this year just south of the Bill Riley Stage (east of the Varied Industries building). The tent is a nice place to sit and enjoy a glass of wine or a Wine-a-Rita made with Tassel Ridge Wine. We will offer several, but not all of our wines at the Fair. Someone from Tassel Ridge Winery will be present during the entire Fair. We look forward to seeing you.

Mark Your Calendars for the Popular Waterfront Seafood Market Fish BBQ Sunday, August 30 at Tassel Ridge Winery

We will serve the freshest salmon of the season with all the trimmings! We will have pricing soon.

What Is Happening In Our Vineyards?

We are working hard to mechanically control weeds in the vineyard and are making slow progress. We are also combing vines so that canes are not a big jumble. Last week, we dropped about 40% of our Marquette in order to improve the quality of what we do harvest.

This week, we collected petiole samples from each variety (15 in all) and will send them to a lab for analysis. The petiole is the stem that a leaf is on. We follow a precise procedure for selecting the leaves to pull and actually take a sample of 150 leaves from each variety. The laboratory analysis will show what nutrients are in the stem and this information combined with what nutrients are in our soils will allow us to determine the contents of our fertilization program this fall and next spring. We want to make sure that the vines have the nutrients they need but don’t want to apply more fertilizer than is absolutely necessary for both cost and environmental reasons.

At this point, we are thinking that we will begin harvest about August 22. Stay tuned.

What Is Happening In Our Cellar?

Our two new 2,000-gallon tanks arrived last week. We will get the catwalks in place and then have the temperature sensor installed and the chilled water connections made. We bottled Red, White, & Blue this week and are getting several other wines ready for bottling. We need to get our bottling done BEFORE we start harvest because crush takes most of our resources for about a month.

Interested in Pairing Specific Foods With Tassel Ridge Wines?

Are you interested in suggestions of foods that pair well with specific Tassel Ridge wines? We’ve put some suggestions on our web site under Recipes and Food Pairing Suggestions. You can link directly to this page at www.tasselridge.com/recipes.htm.

Our Hours:

In July and August 2009, we are open seven days a week for tours, tasting, and wine and gift shop sales:

Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Sunday, Noon–6:00 p.m.

Our Location:

Tassel Ridge Winery is easy to find. It is just south of State Highway 163 on 220th Street in Leighton. From Ottumwa and Oskaloosa, drive northwest on 163 to 220th Street and turn left toward Leighton. From Des Moines and Pella, drive southeast on Highway 163 and turn right at 220th Street. Drive west on 220th about 0.7 miles from the Highway and right into the Tassel Ridge Winery parking lot. view maps